Jacek Rostowski questioned by Amber Gold scandal investigative committee

The questioning of Mr Rostowski lasted nine hours and was full of remark exchanges between the witness, his attorney Marek Chmaj and Law and Justice's politicians.

"You're trying to undermine my credibilty while, unlike yourself, I have never lied to people when speaking from parliamentary rostrum, I have never published falsehood in reports on Amber Gold," said the head of the Amber Gold scandal investigative commitee Małgorzata Wassermann (Law and Justice) in her response to Rostowski who said that he doesn't fully trust her.

In the beginning of the hearing, Rostowski said: "I only want to remind that when Civic Platform was in power, when me and my colleagues were in charge of highest state offices, the most important principle for us was upholding the Constituiton, constitutional laws and the rule of law. Unfortunately, today things aren't like that anymore".

"And for us the order is essential, as well as honesty, justice, criminals in prisons and innocent people free of political sentencing," Wassemann replied. Rostowski then said that "in order for this to be possible, the rule of law must be upheld first".

The committee asked Jacek Rostowski what he knew about Amber Gold, what the Ministry did on the subject, about the cooperation with the Internal Security Agency and his knowledge on what the Central Financial Information Inspectorate did, including Rostowski's deputy. His Deputy Andrzej Parafianowicz was questioned yesterday.

Rostowski replied: "he said that he cooperated with the Internal Security Agency, that the agency was a leading institution and that he would continue to cooperate."

In May of 2012, the head of the Internal Security Agency Krzysztof Bondaryk sent a note on Amber Gold, among others, to the then president, prime minister and minister of finance.The reaction was the dismissal of the heads of two local treasury offices.

During his hearing, Rostowski underlined that within the treasury system there was no plot to protect Amber Gold as, in his opinion, the head of the committee was suggesting.

"There was one Amber Gold scandal, from which in no way is it apparent that everyone cheated," said Rostowski.

According to Małgorzata Wassermann, departments within the ministry were idle and only after two years did they send the Internal Revenue Agency for an inspection for which it didn't have the proper authorization. Only the Treasury Inspection Agency had such authorization, and the institution was under the command of the ministry of finance.

"There were many instruments, the ministry of finance took advantage of none of them," said Wassermann.

"It's enough to check the bank accounts and turnover - the Central Financial Information Inspectorate would have had grounds to inform the prosecutor, to block the accounts and call on banks to institute their procedures on money laundering," she added.

According to Jacek Rostowski, Marcin P. would have continued to cheat people, by simply adjusting his criminal operations to the law.

"If the Internal Revenue Agency had functioned well, there is no guarantee that the fraud would have been caught earlier. I'm convinced that a person like Marcin P., cunning when under pressure, would have hired a criminal but very effective accountant, who would have prepared all the documents," said former finance minister.

Within the so-called financial pyramid of Amber Gold, from its inception in 2009, until it was liquidated in August of 2012, 19 thousand people were deceived, leading to the disposal of their assets to their disadvantage to a total of 851 million zlotys. The company failed to pay out the money that thousands of clients had entrusted it with.

Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP